Eva, I was saddened to hear that my friend and coach Gabor Carelli just died. Your wonderful verse made me think of him and I decided to touch base. That was how I learned of his passing today from another Hungarian friend who knew him and works with the consulate here. Gabor was a tenor at the Metropolitan Opera and a colleague of mine at Manhattan School of Music in the 1980s. It was Gabor who coached me on the Bartok settings of the Ady poems which I then performed successfully at Carnegie and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York. I will miss him. We should take the future very seriously with the great cultural voices that are passing away at this time. Both the great choral conductor Robert Shaw, the orchestral Maestro Sir Georg Solti (from Budapest) and the 20th century theatrical giant Jerzy Grotowski also passed in the last month. We had better find a way to create and pay for their replacements or a whole generation of Western performing arts will pass away. Musical and theatrical art requires practice and live performance. Without both, the art degenerates as levels are lowered. You can't "catch it" in a book, on film or video or on recording. It is a live process that can only be grown and it is decidedly not "productive" in the economic sense. But the society that doesn't value such sublime artists is worse than Philistine. Thank you for the beautiful couplet. REH
Ady is one of my favorites - I wonder how can you appreciate the sounds and the images without knowing the right pronounciations and meanings? What do you think about this one: (also Ady) no cheating! I know there is an on-line Hungarian-English dictionary! "Vagyok, mint minden ember fenseg, Eszak-fok, titok, idegenseg" Eva > Durant wrote: > > > Sorry Ray, I cannot possibly deal with long > > posts like this. The few paragraphs I did read were > > totally incomprehensible to me... Oncc I retire > > I'll have more time... meanwhile, if it is not > > possible to sum it up, I have to leave it... > > (I have to make a living... If anyone offers me some > > money for discussing stuff on the net full-time, > > please do, I think I just found my true vocation...) > > > > Eva > > Eva, > > I do remember a verse from a song that I sang thirty years > ago and if I remember it correctly would speak to the feelings > of the moment, that is if you can consider FW as a substitute > for that place of memory. > > The poet is Ady Endre. > from: > Egyedül A Tengerrel. > > Tengerpart, alkony, kis hotelszoba. > Elment, nem látom többe már soha > Egy virágot a pamlagon hagyott, > Megölelem az ócska pamlagot, > > Though I don't speak Hungarian I do remember the > wonderful way the sounds tumbled from my mouth, > as well as the beautiful images. I'm sure they mean > much more to you and I envy that. > > Thank you, > > REH > > > > >
